NEWTS AND SALAMANDERS. 



451 



and occasionally considerably more. With its flat, oval head, depressed body, 

 warty skin, short, splay-toed limbs, and highly compressed tail, its appearance 

 is by no means prepossessing, and when lying almost motionless in a tank of 

 slimy green water in tlie reptile-house in the London Zoological Gardens, the 

 attention it attracts from the general public is probably but slight. Never- 

 theless it is one of the most interesting of living animals, and our notions of 

 zoological affinities would bo much less clear than they are had this salamander 

 and its allies become extinct. Externally this salamander is distinguished 

 by having four toes in front and three behind, and likewise by the absence of 

 gill-openings on the sides of the neck. Internally it will be found that there 

 are two arches for the support of the gills on each side. If the mouth be 

 opened, it will be seen that its floor is completely covered by the closely 

 adherent tongue, and also that the teeth on the palate form a series running 

 parallel to those on the edge of the upper jaw, these teeth being situated on 

 the vomers. These salamanders, which, as already said, are common to Japan 

 and China, inhabit clear mountain streams, where they feed on such aquatic 

 creatures as they are able to 

 capture ; in captivity, at least, 

 they are known to bo cannibals, 

 but this depraved taste was pi-o- 

 bably develojjed owing to lack 

 of a sufficiency of other food. 

 In autumn the female lays a 

 number of small eggs ; but the 

 early stages of development are 

 unknown, although it is pro- 

 bable that at first the young 

 tadpoles are provided with ex- 

 ternal gills. The much smaller 

 Mississippi salamander, or hell-bender (Cryptohranchus lateralis), is dis- 

 tinguished by the retention of a gill-opening on one or both sides of the 

 neck, and the free front edge of the tongue, as well as by the presence of 

 four pairs of arches for the support of the internal gills. Less than twenty 

 inches seems to bo the maximum size of this salamander. Geographically 

 the range of the species extends from the Mississippi basin and the streams 

 of the Louisianian district to North Carolina. 



Very diff'erent m appearance and structure from both the preceding is the 

 species representing the genus Amphiuvvi, which has a somewhat more ex- 

 tended range than the hell-bender, since it is found in South Carolina. It is 

 an exceedingly elongated eel -like creature, with very minute limbs, of which 

 the front pair are situated close to the head, while the hinder ones are phiced 

 very far back at the commencement of the tail, which is much shorter than 

 the body. It is a rather curious circumstance that whereas in some examples 

 each foot is furnished with three toes, in others the number is reduced to 

 two ; but in organs which are either about to disappear, or are in the course 

 of development, similar variations are by no means of unfrequent occurrence. 

 In the nature of its food this creature is very similar to the Mississi]jpi 

 salamander; but whereas the latter occasionally leaves the water for a stroll 

 on the bank, it does not appear that the former ever quits its native 

 element. The female Amyhimna deposits a string of eggs resembling a. 

 rosary, round which she subsequently coils herself, after arranging the string 

 in a mass. 



Fig. 14.— Giant Salamander 

 {Megalobatrachus maximus). 



